Around the world, countries are issuing emergency approvals of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Now transportation and logistics companies face a huge challenge: Getting millions of doses to people who need them at hospitals, clinics and care homes. The US FDQ has authorized the vaccine for emergency use. The UK and Canada have given the green light to begin distribution. Approval of the Moderna (MRNA) vaccine could also be imminent, following reviews that showed it was both safe and effective. Businesses have been preparing for this moment for months. Thermo King — which revolutionized the transportation of food through advances in temperature-controlled shipping before World War II — has been working with pharmaceutical companies, governments and logistics firms to ensure vaccines stay frozen as they travel to clinics and hospitals. To make this happen, they've reworked containers typically used to transport fresh tuna to Japan, which requires similar frigid conditions. "We took that product and we amended it," said Francesco Incalza, president Thermo King Europe, Middle East and Africa. Tuna must be stored at -60 degrees Celsius, or -76 degrees Fahrenheit, to maintain its quality and deep red hue when it reaches supermarkets and restaurants, Incalza said. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius, or -94 degrees Fahrenheit, while in transit. So Thermo King, which is part of Ireland-based Trane Technologies, made some tweaks, adding additional insulation and adjusting the refrigeration system so it could get even colder. Now, each 20-foot-long container can carry 300,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by land or sea. Some have already been sold and are making their way around the globe. It's just one example of how companies stand at the ready to handle the delicate, complex process of vaccine distribution. Story has more.<br/>
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From Air Canada to China’s CDB Aviation, airlines and leasing firms are rushing to permanently convert older passenger jets into freighters, betting on a boom in e-commerce as the value of used planes tumbles amid the pandemic. That has created a huge opportunity for passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion companies, including Singapore Technologies (ST) Engineering, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and US-based Aeronautical Engineers. Aviation analytics firm Cirium expects the number of P2F conversions globally will rise by 36% to 90 planes in 2021, and to 109 planes in 2022. “We estimate that most slots are sold for 2021 and at least 40% for 2022,” Cirium Head of Market Analysis Chris Seymour said. “There is an increase in newer-generation programs, notably the 737-800 and A321 as well as the A330, although older types like the 767 continue to see strong demand, driven in the past few years by Amazon building their own fleet.” The market value of 15-year-old planes has fallen by 20% to 47% since the start of the year depending on the model, according to advisory firm Ishka, which makes freighter conversions more attractive. Air Canada is looking to convert several of its Boeing Co 767s, Russia’s S7 Group is acquiring its first 737-800 converted freighters from lessor GECAS, and lessor CDB Aviation has ordered two Airbus SE A330 conversions from ST Engineering’s EFW joint venture with Airbus.<br/>
The FAA said Saturday it had approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by pilots and air traffic controllers. The US aviation regulator said pilots and controllers must not fly or conduct safety-related duties for 48 hours after receiving doses. The FAA said it will “monitor the patient response to Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and may adjust this policy as necessary to ensure aviation safety.” The FAA added that additional vaccines will each be evaluated as emergency use authorizations are issued by the FDA. Airlines and unions are still working out how to administer the vaccine to pilots and flight attendants once it becomes available to their group, and preparing for the possibility that some countries require crew to be vaccinated before flying there, people familiar with the matter said. On Friday, the FAA sent guidance to airports to prepare for vaccine distribution, including other facilities that may serve as alternate or diversion airports. The FAA noted that some aircraft used for vaccine shipments may be larger than the aircraft used for passenger-carrying flights that typically serve that airport and operators may opt to have extra aircraft rescue and firefighting services.<br/>
A $908b bipartisan COVID-19 relief plan set to be introduced in the US Congress as early as Monday will be split into two packages in a bid to win approval, a person briefed on the matter said. The plan’s highlights were made public on Dec. 1, but the authors now plan to divide them into two proposals that could be voted on separately, the source said. One will be a $748b measure, which contains money for small businesses, the jobless and COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The other will include some key sticking points: liability protections for business and $160b for state and local governments. US airlines would receive $17b for four months of payroll support under the $908b plan, while public transit systems would receive $15billion.<br/>
Scheduled US passenger airlines cut almost 37,000 jobs in the one-month period ending mid-October, bringing that sector’s employment to the lowest level in at least 30 years, US government data shows. Those cuts followed the expiration in at the end of September of US government aid that had specifically funded US airlines’ payrolls. In mid-October, 22 US carriers employed 368,162 full-time staff, down 9% from 404,869 in the middle of September, the US DOT says on 11 December. Airlines have not employed so few people in any month since the DOT started reporting the figure in January 1990. The sector’s mid-October employment figure was down 19% - or about 86,000 jobs – from the 454,070 full-time workers employed by airlines one year earlier. The majority of the September-October cuts came from four US network carriers, which employ the most of the group and which collectively slashed 32,000 jobs in the period. Low-cost carriers eliminated only about 1,400 jobs in the one-month period, while US regional airlines cut 3,100 jobs.<br/>
The Nordic region’s pace-setting push into green transport is set to extend from cars to the air-travel market. Iceland this month signaled plans to move toward carbon-free domestic flights by the end of the decade, while Sweden’s Heart Aerospace aims to deliver an electric plane specifically designed to ply routes linking remote Scandinavian settlements within six years. Coordinating the region’s initiatives is the Nordic Network for Electric Aviation, founded last year and tying together airport authorities and five airlines including Finnair, Icelandair Group and SAS, alongside Heart and other technology innovators. The emphasis on cleaner flights follows Norway’s strides toward banishing the combustion engine, with more than half the cars sold there now electric. “We have an opportunity here to show the world what’s possible, and also to give the industries in our countries the opportunity to be front-runners and build this market,” said Maria Fiskerud, the NEA’s project manager and former adviser to the Swedish government on aviation biofuels. The group has received 12m kronor ($1.4m) in combined funding from its members and the governments of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Greenland. Iceland’s plan to embrace electric planes is being led by its parliament’s environment and transport committee, which has asked the government to establish a group of experts to lay the groundwork for environmentally friendly domestic services by 2030. While Norway’s success in encouraging electric autos has been driven by generous tax incentives and concern about the economy’s reliance on oil production, the region’s focus on greener aviation is more directly rooted in the unique nature of a market characterized by flights between sparsely populated areas with limited surface transport links.<br/>
Panama has suspended flights from Venezuela, cutting off one of the few remaining air corridors out of the country. Panama’s aviation authority said Sunday that it took the measure after Venezuela restricted access to a Panamanian airline while demanding increased slots in Panama for Venezuelan airlines. The suspension will apply from Sunday until Panama receives “equal and fair treatment,” the authority said.<br/>
Dubai issued a new law giving its aviation regulatory body more autonomy. The law allows Dubai Civil Aviation Authority to sign air traffic rights and implement them in coordination with the federal aviation authority based in the capital Abu Dhabi. The previous law stated that the DCAA had to seek approval from the federal authority. Dubai is home to Emirates Airline, the world’s largest long-haul carrier, and its airport was the busiest in terms of international traffic before the Covid-19 pandemic.<br/>
The UK government has announced that, from 14 December 2020, the number of days that English citizens will be required to quarantine upon returning from countries that are not featured on its travel corridor list will now be required to self-isolate for only 10 days, instead of 14. In addition, from 15 December 2020, passengers arriving into England from countries not featured on the UK government’s travel corridor list will have the option to take a test after five days of self-isolation, with a negative result releasing them from the need to quarantine. Self-isolation is essential to reducing the spread of COVID-19 as it breaks the chains of transmission. After reviewing the evidence, the UK government is now confident that the number of days required for quarantine can be reduced.<br/>
Thousands of travellers who agreed to rebook cancelled holidays – or accepted replacement vouchers – are facing a second wave of heartbreak as they find they can no longer take the trip they planned but the travel firm will not refund them. Over the spring and summer, airlines and travel firms implored customers to accept vouchers or a rebooking, rather than the full refund to which most were entitled. In many cases, travel firms either refused a refund in the hope customers would accept a voucher or rebooking instead, or made it much easier to rebook than get money back. While Guardian Money advised readers to hold out for the refund to which they were entitled, plenty, understandably, did not, and are finding it has come back to haunt them. This could become the next big battleground as people who accepted replacement cruises, ski holidays and a host of other trips find themselves in the same situation. Rory Boland, the editor of Which? Travel, says consumers’ rights vary depending on what they accepted from the travel provider. “In most cases, those with cancelled package holidays will have been issued a refund credit note rather than a voucher, which is financially protected and can eventually be exchanged for a cash refund when it expires,” he says. “That’s not the case for other vouchers, though, including airline vouchers, which have no such protections. Most carriers have also ignored EU guidance, suggesting they should allow vouchers to be exchanged for cash if they aren’t used. Trust in the travel industry has suffered considerably, in no small part down to how operators and airlines have treated their customers this year. These actions won’t help.”<br/>
Heathrow could lose 2,000 retail jobs because of the government’s decision not to offer tax-free shopping for tourists, according to the airport’s CE. John Holland-Kaye said the move, which will make the UK the only country in Europe to have a “tourist tax” on international visitors, could be the “final nail in the coffin” for many struggling businesses in the retail and hospitality sectors. He said: “2021 should be the year of Britain’s economic recovery but recent announcements, such as the tourist tax, could be the final nail in the coffin for struggling businesses such as restaurants, hotels and theatres that rely on inbound tourists, as well as for retailers.” Passenger numbers at Heathrow fell by 88% in November as travel restrictions and a second coronavirus lockdown took their toll. Cargo flights were also well down. The airport said that based on current forecasts and a continued decline in passengers, it had decided that Terminal 4 would remain nonoperational until the end of next year. Holland-Kaye said the industry needed government support including full business rates relief for all UK airports and abandoning the “tourist tax”. Under new tax rules being introduced by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, overseas visitors will no longer be able to benefit from tax-free sales and VAT relief on goods purchased in the UK from 1 January. The government has said that continuing to offer tax-free shopping is too expensive to administer, and that retailers who offer the service are putting other high street retailers at a competitive disadvantage However, trade bodies and retailers have all opposed the change.<br/>
London Heathrow airport is to keep Terminal 4 non-operational until the end of next year as a recovery in air traffic continues to falter. Passenger numbers fell by 88% in November at Europe’s biggest hub over the previous year as it handled just 747,000 passengers. That marked a decline on the 1.24m passengers Heathrow had in October - which was itself down 82% on the same month in 2019. National lockdown restrictions were tightened over much of the UK during November, compounding demand already hit as a result of increased travel restrictions across Europe. ”Based on current forecasts and continued decline in passengers, the decision has been taken for Terminal 4 to remain non-operational until the end of 2021,” the airport says.<br/>
Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary is fond of superlatives, so there was no shortage of them when he placed a $7bn order for 75 of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft last week. “This is not just a safe aircraft . . . It is the safest, most audited, most regulated aircraft that has ever been delivered in the history of civil aviation,” he declared, as he signed the biggest firm order for the ill-starred passenger jet since it was grounded after two fatal crashes 20 months ago. The deal was not the only good news for Boeing, whose credibility is on the line after failures in the Max programme led to the deaths of 346 people. Safety regulators in the US have begun to issue the first airworthiness certificates to individual aircraft, launching what is expected to be a steady return to service of more than 800 passenger jets that had been parked since authorities banned the Max from the skies in March 2019. Gol, the Brazilian airline, told the Financial Times that “a very important milestone” had been passed, as it became the first airline to resume commercial 737 Max flights on Wednesday. The return of the Max not only begins to close a dire chapter in Boeing’s history, it reignites competition in the hottest segment of the aviation market. Boeing’s European rival Airbus has been virtually unchallenged in the market for single-aisle aircraft since the Max was grounded. “That is important for the industry,” said Aengus Kelly, CE of one of the world’s biggest purchasers of aircraft, the leasing company, AerCap. “We have to have competition. We can’t have a situation where one manufacturer has so much market share that the other one is irrelevant.” Story has more.<br/>